Rick’s Music on iTunes

$0.09 from Napster. $0.30 from eMusic. $0.12 from mediaNET. $0.07 from Rhapsody.

Just click on any of the CD covers here for samples of the secret sauce.

Here come the big hitters: $12.74 through Apple iTunes. $4.64 through iTunes-Europe. The balance (too lazy to do the math) came from shrink-wrapped CDs sold through CDBaby.

Woo baby!! And I mean that in all sincerity.

Royalties are a very special category of income, worth much more than the amount deposited at the ATM.

They make you feel all glowy and noble and validated… like a king, even. Hey!… So that’s why they call them…

Never mind.

Royalties are concrete evidence that you’ve created art that is both original AND good. There are others, of course: hearing a young guitar player struggling to recreate your tune at a music jam, or watching little kids dance to your toe-tapper in an open air concert, or hearing grown men sniff back tears at your touching lyrics. In a world where people tend to measure value and success in dollars, such moments are priceless — and probably why it seems perfectly reasonable to tilt at windmills.

An original song, a blog post, a cartoon, a book, a photo… finding and giving voice to an idea is like bearing children: it can be an exhausting, frustrating, incredibly fulfilling and often under-appreciated labor of love that leaves huge stretch marks.

Thanks for pointing this out! Motivated me to finally dig up and use that iTunes card that was too small to re-gift and too much to toss.
I was impressed with your talents before and now I ‘m in awe! I really like the tunes and I wouldn’t call myself a country fan. So move over Garth Brooks and Bela Fleck to make room for a new artist in my country/bluegrass playlist!

Thanks for your maervlous posting! I certainly enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author. I will always bookmark your blog and will come back someday. I want to encourage you to continue your great writing, have a nice holiday weekend!

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